Accenture and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) have mutually agreed to wind down the contract between the Accenture-led Texas Access Alliance and HHSC. Under the contract, the Alliance has been working with HHSC to enhance its technology and business operations in support of the state’s modernization plans.

Accenture and HHSC have not been able to agree on contract changes required to implement the “rebalancing” of the contract that HHSC Commissioner Albert Hawkins announced on Dec. 21, 2006. Accenture and HHSC had been in discussions since November 2006 on changing the terms of the contract.

Accenture and HHSC are working together to develop a timeline for the transition of services covered under the contract back to the state and to ensure that transition will be as seamless as possible.

Accenture does not expect the wind-down of the contract to have a material impact on its financial performance.

Kenexa, announced that BP (with over 100,000 employees) has selected Kenexa Recruiter BrassRing to provide talent management systems for the company.

Delivered as an on-demand application, with one interface, companies can manage all job applicants, enabling a way to identify, assess and recruit individuals. The software supports more than 20 languages. Initially, BP will take advantage of the Kenexa product in four languages – Azeri, Chinese, English and Portuguese.

The Kenexa Recruiter BrassRing system manages over 60 million candidate profiles.

NiSource Inc. is throwing parts of its $1.6b, 10-year outsourcing agreement with IBM into reverse.

The Times (of Northwest Indiana) obtained and internal company communication that states "some results have fallen short of expectations" and that some finance and accounting jobs will be brought back to NiSource.

Altogether, 570 employees were expected to transfer to IBM in the outsourcing and another 430 jobs were to be eliminated, according to NiSource regulatory filings. It was announced June 2, 2005.

All aspects of the IBM arrangement now are being examined, and more in-sourcing announcements may follow, according to the internal communication.

Company spokeswoman Kris Falzone confirmed the information contained in the communication. It was distributed to employees March 12. NiSource remains committed to the IBM agreement as part of its path forward, and it remains a key part of the company's four-point plan, Falzone said. "We're 20 months into this process, it's a 10-year agreement, so this kind of re-evaluation isn't unusual," Falzone said.

Union officials, who battled the company in a series of arbitrations in 2005 on outsourcing, had a different take. "They have to get things in order, and I don't think they have much confidence IBM is getting it right," said Karen Bryan, president of USW Local 13796, which represents about 450 clerical and call center employees. Bryan said she is hopeful further reviews of the IBM agreement will bring back other outsourced jobs. "We have no idea where IBM sent all that work, so it's a possibility something that was sent off-shore could be brought back," Bryan said.

IBM spokesman Adam Emery said the re-evaluation of the outsourcing program is typical of such multiyear arrangements. "Both parties remain firmly committed to the success of the 10-year arrangement," Emery said.

NiSource and IBM are collaborating on the review and hope to have decisions made by early May, according to the communication.

"This assessment is designed to provide a clearer understanding of what's working, what's not working, what needs to change and how it can change," stated Harris Marple, NiSource senior vice president for distribution operations, in the communication.

Just 20 months ago, the utility company announced it was embarking on the outsourcing in order to "transform" the company and save up to $530 million.

The move lopped off one-quarter of NiSource's high-paying white collar jobs in Northwest Indiana. Eighty-four NiSource management and technical employees here were to be handed pink slips and another 66 were slated to become employees of IBM.

In regulatory filings, NiSource has informed investors it delayed start-up on some information technology systems. It warned the delays could cut into projected savings. "We never thought they could recover everything they were talking about," said Paul Justice, an equities analyst with Morningstar Inc. The in-sourcing is probably not tied to NiSource's plans to restructure the company, Justice said.

There have been media reports that NiSource could be preparing to sell off its NIPSCO electric business and perhaps other units of the company.

India’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, it appears, is always fighting bad press. It successfully fought the US and European backlash, just about came to terms with unionization, tided over data theft allegations, tackled allegations of ‘promiscuity’ in call centers and braved the fact that many of those who were arrested in the recent infamous Pune rave party were call center employees.

However, a more serious threat has been staring in its face for the past few months is that of people who have entered the IT-ITeS industry with fudged resumes and impersonation. Given that some BPOs conduct nearly 150 interviews a day, the threat is compounded many times over. In telephone interviews, impersonation is estimated to be in the range of 5-7%, while in face-to-face interviews it's about 1-2% of the total number of interviewees.

Falsification of resumes, impersonators, in brief people recruitment is the biggest problem faced by about 15-20% of the IT-ITeS sector. The problem needs to be tackled at a country level, wherein the government has a unique identification number like the social security number in the US for every citizen. Cases of potential employees falsifying resumes exists in all industries. However screening of employees is more stringent in BPOs mainly to maintain a secure environment where customer data is protected and to eliminate information security breaches.

To solve these problems, Nasscom had launched the National Skills Registry (NSR) in January 2006. The NSR is a centraliszd database of employees of the IT services and BPO companies, which many companies use to run background checks on their employees. Currently, a little over 50,000 employees from around 32 companies including Satyam, TCS, Genpact, WNS, Wipro and Firstsource have registered with the NSR, according to Nasscom.

An Accenture spokesperson commented, “We rely on third-party agencies to check up the identity of a candidate applying for a job with us, in the pre-interview stage.” If at any level, an interview with the global head or HR head is required, it is done through video-conferencing. Infosys BPO is said to insist on photographs along with applications so that nobody can impersonate him/her during the face-to-face interview.

Technologies like biometrics systems too may be helpful in future, but it's currently not that cost-effective. There is a growing interest in the use of biometric solution for cross verification of people at IT/ ITeS companies, schools and colleges. However the implementation of such solutions implies large infrastructure requirements like centrally-managed servers, expertise and other such, making it difficult for companies to introduce these solutions.

Psychometric and psychographic profiling too could provide succour. However, a BPO insider notes there’s no agreement on which tests have to be done and whether they comply with the laws. Besides, they may not reveal a criminal person’s intent. But the fact that BPOs have woken up to the problem may make impersonators think twice before they switch faces.

Satyam Computer Services Limited announced that it has implemented an organisation-wide, virtual learning environment called Satyam Learning World (SLW).

The approach to learning considers the entire lifecycle of human capital management, and includes critical elements such as induction, entry-level training, continuous competency development, performance evaluation, and career-path development.

The launching of SLW coincides with Training Magazine ranking Satyam No 15 in its annual listing of the Top 125 organisations for training.

Satyam will invest more than $8m in the comprehensive program over the next five years Investments and assets will include-tools and technologies such as a learning management system, a content management system, a virtual classroom tool, a performance evaluation management tool, and a networking and blogg OCR tool.

Other tools will handle attendance, library management, web radio, web television Insert comma and mobile learning. A database for attendance and evaluations management is also planned.

According to the results of a study conducted by gas utilities in North America have strategic objectives beyond cost savings in mind when implementing business process outsourcing (BPO).

Findings from the study include:

Gas utilities look to BPO as a means to improve business process improvement more readily than electric utilities

Gas utilities reported a higher percentage of fully outsourced processes than their electric counterparts, and appear to be more accepting of BPO in general

While reducing costs is a common goal, gas utilities are more interested in gaining access to business process skills and knowledge than electric utilities (42% versus 22%)

The study authors believe the higher level of interest and adoption of BPO is a reflection of the significant impact increasing commodity costs are having on bottom-line results for many gas utilities. In addition, the relative size of gas utilities leaves fewer executive levers, such as acquisitions, available as alternatives. The relative size also drives the desire to gain access to business process knowledge that BPO providers can offer.

Other results from the study included:

44% of total respondents said BPO was important as a means to improve business process improvement

An additional 15% said it was very important; 33 percent have already fully outsourced some processes

Fifty three percent have partially outsourced some processes

Sixty five percent of all respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied with BPO, 31 percent are somewhat satisfied, and the remaining 4 percent are not satisfied.

Gas and electric utilities are both facing across the board cost increases and significant capital investment to address reliability and environmental concerns. Utility executives are exploring business process outsourcing to obtain cost reduction and enhanced service delivery benefits that have been realized in other industries in which BPO adoption is more common.

Let’s face it: By their very nature, the fundamental HR processes are aimed at safeguarding stability. But when you ask HR managers about the core competencies of their departments, they will tell you that the management of organizational change is at the forefront. They are wrong.

When it comes to that last one, we have to forget what Dave Ulrich says.

Whenever the human side is involved, organizational change projects tend either to ignore it or to completely outsource it to the HR department. Hopes, dreams wishes, and expectations are never taken into account, and training, communication and coaching are restricted to the minimum. The attitude in most projects is exemplified by this statement: "We’ll take care of the process re-engineering and the technical stuff; HR will do the soft stuff."

However, there are two fundamental reasons why you should not count on HR to drive a change:

When searching for an HR services provider, companies typically conduct an internal assessment focused on tightly define operational and transactional needs, and then describe these in a request for proposal (RFP) submitted to a large number of providers. However, beginning the vendor-selection process with a traditional RFP can impose limits on providers and eliminate options that may best serve the organization. A more effective process for HR services may be a "reverse RFP." Here, organizations identify a much smaller subset of vendors than would typically be included in a mass RFP. The organization specifies the problem it is trying to solve rather than a predetermined solution, and invites vendors to propose answers.

About the presenter: Scott Golas is a managing consultant at Chicago-based PA Consulting Group. He applies insight and realism shaped over 20 years in HR and outsourcing to demystify the rapidly evolving business of HR and workforce issues.

Somerfield Outsources HR Services to Ceridian Somerfield, a UK-based retail chain, has signed a seven-year HR services deal with Ceridian, a US-based HR services provider. The financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. Under the terms of the contract, Ceridian will provide various HR services covering about 17 processes, including payroll and people information services, to Somerfield for its 44,000 employees across 900 stores in the UK. In addition, about 41 employees of Somerfield are likely to be transferred to Ceridian.

The Outsourcing Institute revealed the results of research conducted over the last 18 months that concludes an impending tipping point -- labeled Outsourcing 2.0 -- is imminent in the rapidly evolving outsourcing marketplace.

In his research, Casale reflects on the history of outsourcing, tracing it back to the landmark IT outsourcing contract executed by Eastman Kodak Company in 1989. Although it wasn't cast as such at that time, Casale sees that event staking the beginning of Outsourcing 1.0.

Today, there's frustration about the inefficiencies and status quo of Outsourcing 1.0. The irony is that we've essentially labored under the same model since that milestone contract in 1989. There are three centrifugal forces driving outsourcing today: universal pain in all dimensions of outsourcing; changes in who is outsourcing and how it is done; and, the corresponding Web 2.0 movement that is created a strong tail wind that's helping to propel outsourcing into its next iteration.

The Outsourcing Institute's research also examines the rise of the "do it yourselfer," a new breed of buyer organization, both large and small, that takes a selective approach to outsourcing. Other emerging categories covered in the research include mid-market outsourcing, as well as issues such as the pressures of global opportunities and related challenges.

Casale commented, "Outsourcing has also become a career option. While outsourcing was once a part of what you did, now it is what you do. Outsourcing professionals are responsible for delivering millions and millions of dollars in cost savings, managing billion-dollar outsourcing portfolios and driving significant financial and organizational impact across businesses."

Outsourcing 2.0 considers all of these drivers, and far more. Beyond Web 2.0, which is a movement driven by technology, Outsourcing 2.0 is powered by people and technology. It has brought expanded capabilities to the outsourcing community, thus creating a global community of thousands of companies, buyers, sellers and influences who all have equal access to best practices and knowledge sharing.

Casale concluded, "Responding to the needs and requests of its members, we've broken ground on a new web-platform to support the Outsourcing 2.0 movement. More details will be available shortly."

In the meanwhile, The Outsourcing Institute's research defining the Outsourcing 2.0 movement is available at no charge for a limited time. To request a copy, please visit http://outsourcing.com/outsourcing2/